Stonyfield: A Culture of Inspiration - Who Inspires You?

Today’s theme is Wake Up Inspired. It’s a lovely challenge in theory, but not an easy one in practice. The alarm starts in too early, the ‘to do’ list beckons, the kids call out, and all you can do is grab some coffee and head out the door. Forget inspiration, you’re just trying to find a little motivation.

(Let’s not even talk about breakfast inspiration – the contents of my fridge certainly don’t inspire a four star meal at 6:00 a.m. on a Wednesday.)

But inspiration does exist and I have found that the easiest way to Wake Up Inspired is to think about the people that inspire me.

It’s not too hard in my role, fortunately, for we are a culture of inspiration here at Stonyfield. We are a company founded by a man whose picture could appear on an “organic inspiration” Wikipedia and we are populated with inspirational personalities all around.

Daily, I’m inspired by the communications gals who make me hungry talking about their CSA culinary creations. I’m inspired by the passion of Wood Turner, our VP of Sustainability Innovation and the ways he guides our company’s environmental work. I’m inspired by the fashion and food sense of Laura Stanton, long-time Stonyfielder and chef extraordinaire. I’m extra inspired every time I get to chat with Guy or Kelly, Organic Valley farmers.

I’m also inspired by our chairman Gary, and not surprisingly, he is inspired too. His mornings are made better because of the work we do. “If I go on and on about the soil-saving, health-giving, life-enhancing practices of family farmers, it’s because I don’t believe we can continue to exist on this Earth without them,” he says. “I am emotionally as well as intellectually committed to saving family farms.”

The truth is, the world is filled with great people to be inspired by. They are everywhere you look.

We think it’s a good day for celebrating the inspirer-ers among us. So help us spread some yogurt love: tell us who inspires you in the comments. In June, we’ll surprise 5 lucky nominators and nominees with free yogurt.